In many cases of sciatica pain a physical therapist would recommend, a controlled, specific, progressive exercise routine designed to focus on the underlying cause surrounding the sciatic pain. These specific sciatica exercises would work in two primary ways:
Prevention of future occurrences of pain
When suffering from sciatic pain the best remedy is exercise and not bed rest. Initially, it would be wise to rest for a couple days to allow the pain to subside but once it does, inactivity would gradually make the pain worse. Exercise is vital to the overall health of the spinal discs and surrounding muscles. The increased movement allows blood to flow more freely into those areas providing oxygen and nutrients to help heal damaged tissue, including the sciatic nerve.
Any program designed around sciatic pain would include the following:
Muscle Conditioning – Sciatica exercises would primarily focus on strengthening the muscles in your back and abdominal region, providing more support for your spine. Stretching the muscles would also be focus to help keep the muscles loose as tight muscles would cause more pain. A regular, consistent, combination of the two would allow you to recover much faster, and prevent future occurrences of sciatic pain exercises.
Personal Diagnosis – An exercise program designed by your doctor would be specifically created just for you. This is because most cases of sciatic pain are caused by varying factors unique to each patient. Specific exercises would be more helpful depending on the cause of the sciatic pain and doing the wrong exercises could potentially cause further injury.
Hamstring Stretches – Hamstring stretches would be helpful in almost all cases of sciatic pain and would most likely be included in any personal routine as well. These are located on back of your thighs. When the hamstrings are tighter than normal this will cause lower back pain and cause many of the conditions associated with sciatica.
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